Alastair Campbell is making great hay out of David Cameron's 2007 "cast iron guarantee" quote relating to a referendum over on his blog.
Far be it from me to defend the Tory leader but here is the quote in full:
Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations.
No treaty should be ratified without consulting the British people in a referendum.
The Lisbon Treaty came out of the negotiations so the 'cast iron guarantee' was to have a referendum on it and it alone. Now that the Treaty is ratified, the guarantee has expired.
To continue to hold Cameron to it, Alastair Campbell is looking embarrassingly desperate.
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12 comments:
Actually, the point he is making is summed up in his title: "Is there a Sun blackout on Cameron's dumping of 'cast iron guarantee' on Europe?"
Perfectly reasonable question ... why isn't the Sun reporting the "u-turn"? Every other paper is, including the Torygraph.
It's a fair question but there is an air of desperation in trying to dictate what newspapers should and shouldn't report.
And again, I would argue that it's not a u-turn.
The Tory policy was a referendum on a pre-ratified Lisbon, it's now fully ratified.
A new policy is required but it's not a u-turn so Campbell is wrong to characterise it as one.
I agree. The whole thing changed the moment that the treaty was ratified and became law.
You can't unratify it. And I imagine a referendum in the UK some 6-9 months after the appointment of the president and high representative (don't they give themselves amazingly pompous names?) won't make any difference at all. I should imagine the response would be... so what?
Cameron quite clearly intended that were he to become Prime Minister before the treaty was fully ratified, he would give a referendum.
If the Sun isn't carrying the story, it could be that Jordan and Pete have another revelation to share with us, or that, like the Scotsman, they don't care to carry stories that don't suit their politics.
Labour, desperate Jeff? Surely not?
"45 minutes"
Thanks Tris, though I do wish you'd put the comma after the "desperate" rather than before.
Although with this week-old beard I could pass for a 'Desperate Dan' figure ;)
Good points about The Sun too, comparing it with the calibre of The Telegraph's breaking news is just silly now you mention it.
Oh damn, Jeff, I'm sorry.
(That's better than "oh, damn Jeff,"....)
LOL.
It's been a long day. :-)
Richard has a point, though as i pointed out on the blog Cameron's pledge to reign in the "excesses" of the BBC and to scrap OFCOM would have been more to the Digger's taste than any pledge on the Lisbon treaty.
"New Labour, desperate" - maybe, but this could be their ticket back into the next General Election.
it would appear the sun blame brown more than cameron for why the lisbon deal has been signed.
what a headline today.
personally, i feel it is closer to the mark than other papers; as labour lied about a referendum they deserve everything they are going to get.
and it might hit a few labourites in the cranium regarding the by election as well.
if salmond promised a referendum on eu membership in scotland when scotland became independent, so that the people decide if they want to be in the eu not gordon brown then that might catch a few waverers.
hard to argue with that fair approach?
No worries Tris, serves me right for being finickity about punctuation!
Redcliffe, you're absolutely spot on as far as I'm concerned.
A bit of finickitiness (?) in punctuation never hurt, Jeff (and these are pretty good examples of why).
I agree that an Indeprendent Scotland should be offererd a referendum on constitutional issues including EU membership and monarchy.
Its not a u-turn. The treaty has been ratified by all member states, there is sod all he can do about it.
A u-turn would be if the treaty had not been ratified by all member states but the Tories refused to have a referendum.
Amused by the UKIP position on all this. We can have a free trade deal if we exercise sufficient will power. Free trade was never on offer all that available is the EU. UKIP are liars but nothing new there. Cast Iron Cameron's Sovereignty bill interest's me though. Vesting power in Westminster seems a very alien concept to a Scot. We hold our Sovereignty in the Scottish people. If maybe sounding a bit too Braveheart ish. I think thats why we fear the EU much less. As to the general Eurosceptic fixation with referendums why are theirs good and ours bad? If the nation state is dead after Lisbon as they claim why are they so against us having those powers? They can't have it both ways. Michael
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